Martin Gordon's Blog

Apple announced their long-rumored ultraportable today, in the form of the MacBook Air, a machine that is described more by its physical specs than by its technical specs (both of which I won't repeat because they're are available elsewhere). Here are my thoughts:

• My first impression was that the machine is damn sexy and I'd like to have one. That said, it is completely impractical for me. I don't travel nearly enough to justify the trade-offs that portability brings. I probably wouldn't spend my hard-earned dollars on it, but if I came across $2000 in Atlantic City one weekend, then perhaps I'd pick one up.
• $1000 for the 64 GB solid state disk drive is both ludicrous (that it would cost so much to begin with) and reasonable (that it's actually a fair value for it) at the same time. It's definitely an early-adopter only option now, especially given that it costs almost as much as a new MacBook, but I'm glad Apple is at least giving buyers the option.
• People will bitch about the non-user-replaceable battery this like they did when the iPhone came out. I think it'll turn out to not be as big a dealbreaker as it was made out to be and those who were going to buy one will and those who weren't won't.
• Some of the new multi-touch gestures on the trackpad seem too gimmicky, although I thought the same thing about two-finger scroll and now I wonder how I lived without it. Three-finger back/forward could be useful but pinching to zoom and rotate seem very limited.

Verdict: Great machine. Not for me (yet, at least).

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